Friday, August 13, 2010

Day 3 Arizona

Journal 3 – 8/13/10 2:23pm
Now I have to really think about what has happened since the last post. Everything is starting to blend together. Ok, so last evening we went to Stomboli’s. My parents are going to give me crap, I know. But I actually ate spaghetti and chicken parmagiana. For those who don’t know, I am not a big fan of spaghetti. It wasn’t bad, is all I will say.
On to the later night activities. After the restaurant, we returned to our cabin. We left for Lowell Observatory around 6pm. We got there and learned (for me) and relearned (for the others) how to work the telescope. It is really high tech. We didn’t even have to enter the actual telescope dome. We were in a building next to it and controlling it remotely. It was actually really cool. Once we booted up the computers and all that good stuff, it was still light out so Scott and I took a walk. I got a lot of pictures. And we saw COWS. Real moo-moo cows. Wild, I think, cows. They were roaming free around the Lowell grounds. We got within 5 to 10 yards of them. It was rather weird and cool at the same time. Then we returned to the building and got ready to begin the observing. The guy that met us there, Ed, was pretty cool. He knew what he was talking about. He knew how to work all the machines and computers for the telescope. He was also pretty cool. And he has an awesome dog, Stardust. She was fun to play around with. She kept trying to untie Dr. Augensen’s and Ed’s shoes. It made me want a pet again.
Anyway Ed left about the time we started the observations. All I had to do was type in coordinates and Scott typed in the exposure time and a few other things and we waited for as long as the paper said. Then we went to the next stars. Then wash, rinse and repeat. (I was kidding about the wash and rinse by the way). And we did this all night. From about 7pm to 5am. A few times we went outside to check to see what we can see tonight and see if we could catch any Perseid meteors again. We did see a lot of stars and the Milky Way and some meteors again. It was pretty cool. I was still in amazement even after the previous night. It was really incredible. Anyway we did the typing and waiting. During the waiting periods, I did all kinds of stuff. I watched an episode of Eureka 7. I started up Death Note again. I played around on Facebook for quite a while. I posted my previous blogs as some of you know. By the way, I will either have internet access (at observatory) or cell access (at cabin) but never both. Anyway, the night was long and tiring. We ate our Subway sandwiches around 2 or 3 local time. We left at about 5am. I don’t remember most of the trip. I was asleep for a bit and just out of it for the rest. We got back and Dr. Augensen said we could sleep as late as we wanted because we had worked the whole night. He got up earlier and went to NAU to look at the data. Scott and I remained in bed until 12:30 for me and 1 for Scott. Today is mostly uneventful just breakfast after noon and dinner around 4 or so, then observing tonight again. I am just lounging currently. Wishing I could go back to sleep, but it probably wouldn’t be worth it. Oh well. Be back for more adventures later.

3 comments:

  1. "Real moo-moo cows. Wild, I think, cows."

    Best line ever.

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  2. SPAGHETTI???????? i knew you would like it .lmao guess what we're having first day you come home?lol.really enjoying your blogs.keep us updated love ya,dad

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  3. Love your blogs...
    some make me laugh,
    some make me smile-like you wouldn't believe,
    some make me want to cry,
    but all make me soooo proud of you.
    These last few-from AZ, you really seem to "enjoy" sharing with us-that you're having fun, and that you are really happy!!!!
    Enjoy yourself, be safe. Keep blogging!!
    ALL MY LOVE-mom

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